ResearchWorks: Canaries in the Coalmine: the precarious role of musicians in the digital economy

The rise of the digital economy – and the platforms upon which it relies – has had a huge impact upon the conditions and expectation of labour for musicians and creatives. With capitalism increasingly embracing the ‘gig economy’ – a term itself borrowed from the labour-relations of gigging musicians – this research explores the ways in which the digital economy relies upon musicians as a testing ground for new modes of exploitation. Simultaneously, it proposes that it is conversely musicians that best hold the means of resisting late-stage capitalism via a focus on community-building, micro-economic structures, and a long-standing focus on sharing and DIY methodologies.

Speaker:

Daniel Alexander Hignell-Tully is an artist, writer and researcher, whose work explores participation, experimentation, and the relationship between sense and sensation. His research engages with a critique of the contemporary agora, the shared space of creativity. As such, his interests include the socio-political context of art-making and the affordance of the everyday, alongside social anthropology, social law and systems theory. Daniel runs the DAAM Collective, a DIY press/label dedicated to producing and releasing the public-facing outputs of experimental and socially-aware art and music projects, as well as spear-heading MEANS, a community-led magazine supporting grassroots creatives.

Guildhall School’s ResearchWorks is a programme of events centred around the School’s research activity, bringing together staff, students and guests of international standing. We run regular events throughout the term intended to share the innovative research findings of the School and its guests with students, staff and the public.